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Last weekend, I caught a largemouth on the north end of KY Lake. When I got it in the boat, I noticed a lamprey on it, and it fell off in the boat. It was about 6" long, and had a mouth full of teeth. This is the first one I've seen in KY Lake, well first time ever actually.
How long have they been in KY Lake?
From what I understand they have been in there a long time. Dave Stewart could give you more info. I am working on an article with Mark Menendez and he talked about them and even has a soft plastic he uses to imitate them. They are pretty well entrenched on the Tennessee River system in my understanding.
Kentucky has several native species of lamprey.
They have been here as long as I have fished here which is about 25 years now...they probably have been here since it was a river and not a reservior.
Ok... Somebody clue me in here. What the @#@# is a lamprey ??
this should tell u about them [URL]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamprey[/URL]
So is Guntersville.
Well I'll be darn. After fishing both lakes for over 20 years, I finally saw one. Apparently lots of people have seen them before.
There are actually seven species of lamprey that live in Kentucky.
[url]http://www.kentuckycrosswords.com/Learn/Fish.html[/url]
There are some interesting reads from the pages on this search page,
[url]http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1T4GGLG_en&q=lampreys+in+kentucky&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=[/url]
This is from the last paragraph from the following page:
[url]http://www.rook.org/earl/bwca/nature/fish/ichthyomyzoncas.html[/url]
The native lamprey species of the genus Ichthyomyzon should not be confused with the exotic and destructive Sea Lamprey (Petromyzon marinus), which wreaked havoc with native game fish in the Great Lakes before vigorous control measures brought it to check. The native lamprey have evolved with, and live in balance with, their host populations.
Status
Identified as a vulnerable species in adjacent boreal Canada.
Listed as a species of special concern in Georgia, Kentucky, Nebraska
Listed as Threatened in Iowa and Kansas
[url]http://www.rook.org/earl/bwca/nature/fish/ichthyomyzoncas.html[/url]
They were thick in the great lakes, they came in on the st lawrence sea way.They almost, some claim they did wipe out the native lake trout. They are semi controlled now, but a lot of money was spent trying to get a handle on them.